Jeremy's Adventure in Denver
by Black-Rose Marley
Summary: After Elena sends him off to Denver, Jeremy meets a few interesting people. How will he handle the pressure, the people...the girls? Jeremy/OC, Kol/OC. Rated for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Jack POV

"Have you seen the new kid? Soooo hot!" my so-so friend Lizzi gushed.

"Um…no I have not," I said. Lizzi has a bit of a one-track-mind when it comes to boys, while I don't care.

"Seriously, J, I think he was looking at you in first hour!" she said.

Lizzi refused to call me by my name. She thought it was weird and hated that I called myself Jack, instead of something girlier.

"Oh, was he the new kid in our first hour?" I asked, just realizing what she said.

"Yeah, the brown haired kid? His name's Jeremy and he's new to town. And single!"

I couldn't help but wonder how much stalking it took her to get all that information.

"And he's coming over here!" she squealed before fixing her hair using the mirror in my locker and slamming it shut. I growled, aggravated, because I still needed to get stuff out of it.

"Hey Jeremy!" she called. I turned away from their completely predictable flirting session to open my locker.

Jeremy came over, albeit a bit warily, and said, "Uh, hey…" he trailed off.

"Lizzi," she said. "And this is Jackie."

"Jack," I corrected her absently as her not-so-subtle nudge to my arm made me miss the third number in my combination. "Goddammit," I whispered.

"So Jeremy, where are you from?" Lizzi asked.

"Virginia," he replied. "Small town named Mystic Falls."

"Really?" I asked as my interest peaked. "I used to live there."

"Huh," Jeremy muttered. "Interesting. Pretty weird place."

"Mystic," I agreed sarcastically.

He looked at me as if I was missing some private joke.

"Hey, Jeremy," Lizzi said. "We should hang out! Right, I mean, we have so much in common. We can both tolerate…Jack here." I frowned at her, which she didn't see. I made an obscure sign language gesture which she pretended not to see.

"Well, I would hang out, but…I kind of want to get to know Jack," Jeremy said. "Maybe, uh…me and you could hang out after school today?" he asked, almost shyly.

"Well…" I trailed off glancing at the best friend I have. She looked pissed. "I'm kind of hanging with my other friend tonight…"

"Yeah, creepy Kol," Lizzi said. "She has this boyfriend, Kol, who's like, way too old for her."

"He's only twenty, and I'm seventeen, so it doesn't matter," I said defensively.

"Whatever."

I thought about it for a minute. Not Kol, who's one of the only people who understands me, but Jeremy. I thought about leaving him alone with Lizzi and the thought made me shudder. "Why don't you come with us? We'll be playing baseball out behind the school at three. You should come. He'd like to meet you."

Lizzi looked at me, absolutely stunned. But hey, you do what you have to.

"Cool. I'd like to," Jeremy said. "Hey, since you're being so nice to me, maybe you'll be more nice and show me around?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'd like to. Follow me!" I said like an idiot.

He followed me as we headed to our third hour, which we found out we had together. Mrs. Roy introduced our new student, and then we sat in our seats. Our teacher sat him right next to me so I could get him caught up on work.

"You don't have the best work ethic," I pointed out to him as we left the classroom. He had spent all the hour complaining about how he didn't know this or that.

"No, I always just slacked off, did drugs, etc. That's probably why they sent me to live with some family friends." He cut off then as if he'd said too much. I decided not to ask him about it. He'd tell me when he wanted.

"Oh, cool. Well, let's go get lunch now," I said lamely to get the subject off him. Just for a second, I could have sworn his face was incredibly relieved.

We sat down at the lunch table by Lizzi, but we sat at the other end. I was waiting for Lizzi to come over, give me dagger-glares, which are her specialty, and start flirting with Jeremy again, but she never did. Instead, she stayed where she was, flirting with another guy, Lucas. Lucas came to school like, two days ago and had already made "friends" with Lizzi.

"God, she is such a slut," I whispered, and Jeremy laughed, obviously hearing me.

"Move, bitch," a nasty voice said. We looked over to the door to the lunchroom to find a blond cheerleader, as noted by her uniform that she never took off, headed toward us.

"And speaking of sluts," I said to Jeremy. "That's Natalia Rayne. Head cheerleader, big ego, and the nastiest girl in school. Actually, she and I used to be, like, best friends. But she used to be different," I added in a rush. "In middle school, she was so nice and the least expecting person to become head slutleader you could ever imagine. But we came back from summer break and went into ninth grade, and she totally changed. She tried out for the cheerleading squad, something we promised ourselves we would never do. She wore way too much makeup and skimpy clothes. And she actually expected me to still be her friend. So I told her off, I said, 'Uh, no. you've changed. You're not my friend Natalia anymore, you're someone different.' And I walked away and never spoke to her again. Big mistake. She's made it her goal to make my life hell. Yeah, I'm the one who needs their life made hell. Maybe it'd be a wake up call for her," I mused.

"Or maybe it'd just make her even more pissed at you for ditching me," Natalia's sneering voice said behind me. "Who's this? New meat?" she asked, gesturing to Jeremy.

"No, this is Jeremy. He's new. And he's not to be messed with, especially by you, so get your slutty ass out of here before I make you."

"What are you going to do about it?" Natalia asked.

"Oh, sweetheart, that's funny. You think I'd tell you what I was going to do. Ruin the element of surprise, I think not." Natalia actually took a step back. She knew how aggressive I could be.

"Sweetheart, you're the funny one. You actually think you have a chance with this moron," Natalia said in order to compensate for being scared of me.

I rolled my eyes. Maybe that would have hurt if I liked Jeremy, but he was only a friend who I liked hanging out with. He was funny and smart, not that he showed it. Maybe if Natalia thought a little, she could see I didn't like him. She did know me once, after all. 


	2. Chapter 2

Natalia POV

All I wanted to do was eat lunch in peace. But then I see my former best friend Jack hanging out with a new guy—the guy I had mentally claimed. I saw him in second hour and decided I wanted him, and as everyone knows, Natalia Rayne always gets what she wants.

So naturally I had to go yell at her for it, but then I heard her actually telling this new kid that she wanted to make my life hell. So I ended up yelling at her for that too. Sometimes I wanted to tear her hair out. Her unnaturally red-orange hair, in between the cherry red and carrot colored red, that everyone assumed was dyed but was actually natural. I know this because she told me everything once, and I trusted her not to lie to me. Sometimes I still think she remembered and wanted to be my friend again, but I had blown it when I went slutleader.

"Sweetheart, you're the funny one. You actually think you have a chance with this moron," I said to down her spirits, but she just rolled her eyes as if it didn't bug her. It actually didn't bug her. If there was one thing I knew about her, it was that she could barely lie at the best of times, and admitting she did or didn't like someone could hardly be counted as a "best of times" scenario. "Whatever. I'm so out of here," I said to…well…get out of there.

I headed to my table where all the cheerleaders and football players sit, and I sat down. Jillian turned to me. "Was that the guy you claimed?" she asked. "With Jack?"

"Yeah. It's okay though, it's not like she has a chance," I repeated to my new best friend.

We talked all through lunch about how I was going to get him away from her, and then I realized it was almost time for fourth hour. "I got to go," I said as I rushed to throw my tray away.

"Yeah, I'm skipping. Economics is so boring with Mrs. Mansew," Jillian said.

I rushed to class and found a seat in back that was still open, because Mrs. Mansew didn't give us assigned seats. It wasn't until after the late bell rang that Jeremy and Jack slipped into the room. Jack explained that Jeremy was new and that she was still showing him around—suck up—and she asked for a pass to her class, which our teacher gave to her. Jeremy eyed the few remaining seats and chose one right next to me, the only one in the back, and gained pitying looks from Jack before she left.

"Okay," Mrs. Mansew said. "I'm going to pair you guys up and you have to do an assignment for the next week. It's about managing money in a store you own, blah blah blah." Yeah, she's not the best teacher. "Emma and Jake." Damn. Lucky bitch, she got the hot guy in the class. "Jillian and Derek. Since Jillian's not here today, Derek, you'll have to work by yourself for the day." Jillian's lucky she's not here. Derek's a nerd and will probably do all the work and let her take all the credit. He did for me once. Of course, I had had to bribe him….

"And, Natalia, you're lucky we just got a new student, because otherwise we would have had an odd number and you would have been working by yourself. But you'll be working with new kid Jeremy."

Yes! That will show Jack! I was determined to make this kid mine no matter what the costs! Good thing we were learning about money in econ; I'd need these lessons.

"Okay," Jeremy said. "I hope you know what you're doing, because I'm an idiot."

"I don't think you're an idiot," I said flirtingly.

"Er…I barely know you…" he trailed off.

"No, and I don't know you. But we should change that," I said, fluttering my eyes.

Jeremy raised one eyebrow. I never understood how anyone could do that. Then again, I'd never been normal; I could flip my tongue over.

"Sorry, came on a bit too strong," I said, trying a different approach. "How about we just work?" I rolled up my sleeves on impulse, but thought better of it and rolled them back down. I saw Jeremy looking at my wrist in disbelief. Then he shook his head and went back to normal.

"Yeah," he said. "Let's work."

o.O.o

"So how was econ?" Jillian asked, not that she cared.

"Okay, actually. I got paired with Jeremy for a project. And you got paired with Derek. How amazing for you," I said.

"Why? He's not even cute!"

"So? When I was paired with him for something, he did all the work and I got an A," I explained.

"Alright!" she cheered. "So you coming to practice after school?"

"Where else would I be?" I asked.

"Your brother isn't in town?" Jillian asked, frowning.

"No, why?"

"I called your house last night and Tyler answered the phone. And I could tell it was him, because he has the dreamiest voice—"

"Whoa, wait. I wasn't at home until late last night, I was with Alex and John and Bre. No one told me Tyler was home when I got back."

"Well I'd know his hot voice anywhere!" Jillian gushed.

Tyler and Matt were my two older brothers. Matt was eighteen and Tyler was nineteen, and they were both in college. I was the youngest and only girl in the family…besides my mom of course. I missed my brothers like crazy my whole life, because even when they were living at home, they'd always be at some friend's house or football practice. When they went away to college, though, I missed them even more. I never realized how much I actually saw them until they left.

"I gotta call my house, like, now," I said and retreated to the bathroom where I called my house phone, and sure enough, Tyler answered on the first ring.

"Hey, Talia," he said. "I thought you'd be calling sometime today. Don't you have class? Oh, who am I kidding, I never went to class either—kidding Dad!" he cut off and called somewhere else. "Anyway, I didn't see you last night because I had to go to my hotel early."

"No one even told me you were in town!" I said. "I found out from Jillian…"

"Yeah, she practically passed out on the phone yesterday when I answered. What ever happened to that Jack girl? She was nice."

Knowing him, he meant nice body, not nice personality.

"It's complicated, I told you."

"Aw, I know. I'm just teasing. Anyway, I'll be in town the whole week. We have a break for something or other, and so I came back. Matt wanted to stay up there with his girlfriend, you know him, but I'm here and he promised he'd be back for the next break, okay?"

"Okay," I said as the late bell rang. "I don't want to go to class. If I say I don't feel good, will you come pick me up?"

"What's that?" Tyler said loudly. "You're puking all over the school bathroom? Alright, I'll come get you, but puke in my car and I swear I'll knock your head in." I heard a car door close on the other line and he said, "Dad fled the room when I said 'puke' the first time. See you soon, girl."

This is why I love my brother. 


	3. Chapter 3

Jack POV

"Hey Jeremy," I said when I saw him walking past me on the way to fifth hour. Lizzi was standing next to me fuming, but she's not the best friend ever so it's just fun making her mad.

"Hey Jack," he replied. He glanced at Lizzi but didn't look her way again until she said, "Oh my God, so have you thought about whether you're coming to hang out with me after school?"

I swear this chick is deaf.

"No, I said I was hanging with Jack and Kol…" he trailed off. "But…I can't. I got paired with Natalia for an economics project and we have to work on it after school. I really would love to blow it off, but I can't. I need to do better in school than I was doing before I came here."

"True," I said, knowing full well from earlier that he most definitely needed to smarten up.

"So you're not mad or anything?"

"No, but if you get a chance, you can come by the baseball diamonds after school."

"Okay, I'll try," he replied.

Fifth and sixth hour were boring, and then it was time to go home, or in my case, head out back. I met with Kol and Rebekah out back. Rebekah was Kol's sister and for some reason was only sometimes around. Sometimes she just left for the other side of the country, or that's how Kol described it. But today she was dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, signifying she was ready to play baseball. So was Kol. Me, I always wear either t-shirts or all black to school anyway, so it didn't matter.

"Okay, well, we don't really have a lot of people to play with," Kol said. "It's just the three of us, so we'll just take turns hitting and pitching."

"Cool," I said. I grabbed my lucky pink bat. My dad had gotten me a pink bat when I started showing an interest in baseball, and I had immediately put it aside in the closet until somehow, all our other bats had been broken. I got out the pink bat and I had barely missed. Now, some may be cynical about lucky bats, but hey, I believe in good luck charms.

"Alright, Jack, you bat first," Rebekah said sarcastically. I threw the bat at her lightly, and she caught it in one hand.

"Happy?" I asked, grabbing my lucky pink mitt (same story there).

"Very much. Even more so if my brother would—"

"That's enough, Rebekah," Kol said. Whenever I asked Kol about anything Rebekah said, because she always seemed to drop not-so-subtle hints about something or other, he told me it was family stuff and I shouldn't get involved. Boy, did I know enough about family stuff.

Kol threw the ball, and Rebekah missed. And it was times like these I wished we had a catcher, but we hit more often than missed, and didn't see the need. She threw it back. I couldn't help but notice, as I always do, the amount of power they put into this game. They threw the ball hard, and hit far. I couldn't hit nearly as far, but Kol assured me they had been playing this game since they were little, and that it took practice. It was weird, though, that they'd been playing this game forever, because they were British, and baseball was first and foremost the AMERICAN pastime.

Rebekah hit the next ball Kol threw, and I backed up in the outfield to catch it, but I missed my about two inches. I swore quietly, and I saw Kol smiling at me. He always seemed to hear me no matter how quiet I swore. Rebekah was smiling too, laughing even. Damn you Twilight vamps with your superior hearing. I had teased Kol and Rebekah once of being vampires, and they just laughed and said, "Does it look like we sparkle in the sun?" Well, they got me there.

I threw the ball back to Kol, who called back, "Rotate!" and threw back to me. We continued playing for about an hour before we were all tired.

"Hey, Rebekah, how old are you?" I asked her. She couldn't have been more than 18.

"Eighteen," she said, confirming my suspicion.

"Why aren't you in school?" I asked.

"Why go to public school?" she countered. "My whole family was home-schooled."

"Oh."

"Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't, I was just wondering."

"Well," she said, standing up, "I need to get home anyway. Mum and Dad will be looking for me."

Kol and I nodded and she took off running. How she could run the whole 3 miles to her house was beyond me. Kol had the keys to their car, so I knew she wasn't driving. Besides, Kol always drove me home.

"So what was that whole school thing about?" Kol asked after a minute.

"I don't know." I lied down on the grass. "Just a question."

"I know you better than that," he argued. "What's wrong?"

"I just, you know, thought it would be nice to have a friend in school. A real one, not just someone who flakes on you and gets bitchy if you even talk to the new kid."

"Someone making you sad? Do I have to beat her up?" Kol asked.

"Not yet," I said. "And I think if she gives me any trouble, I can take her on myself. She's kind of a wimp."

Kol smiled at me. He was sitting so he was over me as I lied down, and the sun was in my eyes, so I couldn't see him very well. He paused for a long time before leaning down and kissing me.

This was the first time he ever let his feelings for me show. I didn't know how he felt about me, but I knew he was pretty awesome. And cute. And had a cool British accent. I kissed him back until someone running by interrupted us with the whole, "Hey, you kids can't make out here!" routine.

Kol pulled back and rolled his eyes. I rolled my eyes right back. Then I said, "I should probably be getting home."

Kol helped me up and held my hand all the way to his car. He could be very sweet when he wanted to be. 


	4. Chapter 4

Natalia POV

"I don't care what the assignment is, I want to do it this way!"

That is pretty much all I said to Jeremy while we were working on our project. He wanted to play by the rules, I didn't. Well, technically, I didn't even want to be here; I wanted to go home and spend time with my brother, but he had forced me to come work on this project with my partner, saying that if I failed anything while he was here he'd kick my ass. Figuratively of course. My brothers love me too much to hurt me.

"We have to follow the goddamn guidelines." I can tell Jeremy is getting pissed, so I try something else. I may be the school slut, as I've heard everyone tell me, but I still have feelings and I wanted someone like Jeremy in my life. He seemed like the kind of person who wouldn't want my feelings hurt, and believe it or not, I needed someone like that.

"I'm sorry. I just want to go home and see my brother. He's home from school for the week and I never get to see him since he went off to college." I pulled my best puppy-dog-face and he finally caved.

"Fine. We can work on it in class tomorrow. I'll see you then?" he asked.

"Yeah." I was about to head out to my car when he chased after me. I knew it would work.

"Hey! I almost forgot. I wanted to talk to you about something," he said seriously. "Er…earlier, in class, I mean, you…rolled up your sleeves, and I could have sworn I saw, like, scratch marks on it. It looked like you'd cut yourself. I just want to know what's up, I mean, if anything," he added quickly, "because for all I know they could be from like, your cat…." He trailed off.

"Oh, no those are from when I fell off some rocks at the beach. We were on vacation and I just slipped and fell. But it's embarrassing, so I hide it. And, it also does kind of look like I cut my arm, but why would I want to?" I asked calmly, when on the inside I was screaming, "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"Oh, okay. I just thought before I went rushing to conclusions, I would ask you about it."

"Well, thank you for that, because I don't need anyone thinking I'm some sort of cutter," I said jokingly.

"Right," he agreed.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow in school," I said sweetly before driving away.

How do I get this hot kid to like me? Apparently, I act real. Because he doesn't respond to my looks the way normal people do. I thought about this all the way home.

o.O.o

"Hey, Nat, listen," Tyler said in the middle of our conversation about college life. "I'm sorry I never had time for you when I was around. I realize now that I should have been here for you, my little sister. But I got so caught up with school and football and friends that I neglected you, and in my absence, you became a cheerleading bitch, didn't you?" he asked teasingly. We always called cheerleaders bitches, even though I was one and he had dated many.

"Yeah, it's all your fault," I teased back, even though this apology meant more than anything he could have said. "But it's okay, because you're here now, even for a little while."

"Whoa, you're not getting all sentimental on me, are you? Because I don't do feelings well."

"Of course not," I joked.

"Good. Now who was this kid you were totally blowing me off for?"

"Uh, excuse me, but you told me to go work on our project with him, so I can't be blamed for 'blowing you off,'" I said. "And he's Jeremy, this guy that Mrs. Mansew paired me with."

"Oh, Mrs. Mansew? God she is horrible. As a teacher, and a person. She absolutely hated me."

"I think it's rubbing off onto me, because she almost made me work on the project by myself."

"Oh, that's rough. She did that to me once. She said we had an odd number of people in the class—and then there was a group of her three favorite students. I repeat, THREE!"

"That sounds like her," I replied.

"But anyway, this guy, Jeremy?" he asked to get back on track.

"He's just this new guy. Kind of cute, keeps to himself, and doesn't notice me when I'm at my hottest."

"Not all guys want girls because they're hot. Some guys just want friends, some want sex, and some don't want anything. And then some want guys, but that's not important."

"And Jeremy wants a friend?"

"Maybe. I've never met the kid, remember?" Tyler said.

"Hey guys," my dad said as he came in the room. "Your mom's working late tonight, so I thought the three of us could go out for dinner or something."

"How about just pizza?" Tyler asked. "I've got somewhere to go later, so I really can't stay here that long."

"What?" I asked. "Can't you stay here for at least tonight?"

"Sorry, kiddo, I've got places to be. People to screw, etc." He smiled at my dad's disapproving look. "Just kidding, dad, but I really do have to get going soon."

"Well, if you must," my dad said, and I could see the successful smile when Tyler turned his back. 


	5. Chapter 5

Jack POV

The next day at school found an extra flirty Lizzi, an extra bitchy Natalia, and an extra quiet Jeremy.

"What's wrong?" I asked him in first hour. "You're quiet today."

"Nothing," he replied. "Just kind of tired."

I didn't say anything about it, because, hell, we were all kind of tired. Mrs. Faiter gave us back our homework we had turned in yesterday, and Jeremy's was a big fat zero.

"I thought you wanted to up your work ethic," I said accusingly yet teasingly at the same time.

"Not as easy as it sounds," he replied jokingly.

"Right."

"J, I think Jeremy wants to stop talking to the lowlives of the school, and talk to…I don't know, me?" she said desperately. One can only wonder how she had managed not to get bitch slapped over the course of her whole life. I know I have certainly considered it.

"Uh, I'm fine, thanks," Jeremy said to Lizzi. Jeremy…whatever your last name is…I think I just fell in love with you! Not really. But he is awesome.

Lizzi scoffed at us and turned back to her failed assignment, knowing full well she'd blame me for not being there to help her AKA let her copy off mine.

"Why do you let her talk to you like that?" Jeremy asked me later as we left first hour.

"Like, yelling at me?" I clarified.

"Yeah, like, she treats you like you're hers to control. Maybe it's not my business, but I don't like it."

"Maybe I'm just too much of a pushover, or maybe I've just had too many people talking to me like that my whole life so it doesn't really register in my mind. What I do know is that she's one of the only friends I have, so I'd do well not to screw it up."

"Well, you deserve better friends," he replied. "And if people have been talking to you your whole life like Lizzi talks to you now, I feel very sorry for you."

"Well, not really all the jealous bitching she does, but people have been treating me like I don't matter for the better part of eighteen years."

"Aren't you seventeen?" he asked.

"Yeah. See, the story I was told was that my mom was a prostitute," I said, lowering my voice, "so she wasn't thrilled about getting pregnant with me on the job. She was supposed to be on a pill, but it didn't work…or something. So I'm guessing, though I wasn't there, that my mom just didn't want me. She took a break from her 'job' as she calls it, had me, set me up for adoption, and went right back to her job. Like, right back. No break or anything. I was put in foster home after foster home, and people are under the assumption that all foster kids, especially the ones who have been in foster care almost their whole lives, are problem children. I am not a problem child!" I exclaimed.

"Wow. Some story. Does Lizzi know that?"

"Please. How could I tell her that? Have you seen the way she acts?"

"Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be the best idea."

The bell rang then, and Jeremy and I went off to our separate second hours.

o.O.o

"Hey, bitches, get off our table." Natalia Rayne's voice was the easiest to recognize in the world, and it's her voice that calls to us at lunch.

"Why are we the bitches?" I asked. "And since when is it your table?"

"Since we always sit here," she replied. "And since I don't like you." Her idiot friend Jillian nodded along in agreement.

"What's your problem today?" I asked. "You're even more of a bitch than most days."

"Never you mind," she said, and flipped her hair back and went to sit at a different table.

"This isn't even her table. We got here first," I mumbled.

"And someone else was at ours," Jeremy added. "So it's not our fault."

I watched Natalia from the next table. She was laughing way too loudly and flipping her hair around. I remembered when she hated being a blond and would have given anything to dye her hair like mine. I kept reminding her that my hair wasn't dyed, and she'd ignore me, but it was all in good fun. I remembered once how she forced me to try and dye her hair myself with red Kool-Aid. It worked, but her parents flipped and made her wash the "blood" out of her hair. The next day we tried it with blue Kool-Aid. There was nothing her parents could say about that except, "Go wash your hair." I always told her she should talk to her parents about getting her hair at least dyed brown, but she told me they'd say no in a heartbeat. Well, maybe not her mom, but for some reason Natalia had always been deathly afraid of her dad. No matter how many times she told me I was mad, I knew for a fact she was terrified.

"So by the way," I asked Jeremy, "how did that project thing go with her?"

"She's even more of a slacker than me. And I didn't think that was possible."

"Funny. She never used to be like that."

"When you two were friends, you mean?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied quickly.

"Oh well. Nothing to do about it now," he said. "Hey, you know what? Natalia's older brother is in town, she said, so she can't stay after to work on the project with me. Maybe I could hang out with you and your friend Kol?" he asked. I wondered idly why Natalia was so mean today, if her brother was there. She loved both of her brothers.

"Yeah, I don't know if he can today but I'll ask," I replied, pulling out my phone. I texted Kol and he texted back a few minutes later, saying he was free but his sister wasn't.

"He has a sister too?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah. Her name's Rebekah. They're from England," I said.

"Rebekah," he murmured. "I used to know a Rebekah…."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I think the Rebekah I know is still back in Mystic Falls," he said.

"With a knife in her back?" I teased, but he looked alarmed. "I was kidding. That's just what you implied from your tone," I explained. He relaxed visibly.

"Alright then," he said. "I'll see you later." 


	6. Chapter 6

Natalia POV

Jeremy and I were in economics working on our project. I glanced over at Jillian who was watching me work with Jeremy sympathetically. She didn't have any work to do today.

"So how do you want to set these prices?" he asked, snapping my attention back to the project.

"Um…five dollars?" I said, having not been paying attention.

"For candy? Damn. Rich girl," he teased.

I laughed with him. "Jeremy, you're so nice. I mean, way too nice for me."

"I'm really not that great," he said. "I've been involved in too much stuff. It's like, in Mystic Falls, I lived with my sister and aunt—"

"What happened to your parents?" I asked.

"They drove off a bridge."

"I'm sorry."

"So after that, I became the drug-using delinquent. Then my aunt died, and it was just me, my sister, and my history teacher, believe it or not, and that is a long story." I laughed and he continued then. "They…didn't like my behavior, so they sent me to live with family friends here."

"I bet you miss them," I said, wondering what it would be like to be sent away from my mom, dad, and brothers. Dad, I could probably live without, but not my mom, or Matt or Tyler.

"You know, surprisingly, I'm actually fine. Here, I think I'm doing much better. With the drug part, anyway, because I haven't actually gotten that many grades yet. That's why we should do good on this project that we should be working on instead of telling my life's story."

"True," I said. We looked down at the paper and began to work again.

o.O.o

"So, shouldn't you be working on that stupid project again?" Tyler asked when I got home later in the day. I had stayed after for a little bit of cheerleading practice, but then told the coach I wasn't feeling well and got in my car and drove home.

"Can't work on econ every day," I replied.

"When's it due?" Tyler asked.

"Next Wednesday," I replied.

"Yeah, but you have Mrs. Mansew. She'll give your whole class at least a two day extension, if one person complains about not having it done on time."

"Right. She did that once," I remembered. "And then she started complaining about not being able to grade them before the end of the card marking."

"That's what she does. But she'd never take it out on the class. It's her fault for not preparing enough time to grade in the first place."

"She is a major pushover," I said.

My mom walked in then. "Hey Tyler!" she practically shouted. "Sorry I haven't been around much in the past two days. I've had to work late."

"We know," I said. "You never work late anymore. Last night was the first time in months, years even, that you had to work late."

"I know, and I felt bad for missing Tyler's first day back."

'But not for me?' I thought.

"Listen, Nat, we know you don't like dad, but there's no reason you have to be so afraid to be here when mom's working late."

"What do you mean, Tyler?" my mom asked.

"Natalia is scared shitless…I mean, she's…terrified of staying here when you're working late and me and Matt aren't here. She used to beg us to stay home on nights when you would work late, and when we'd ask why, she'd say, 'Daddy's scary.'"

"I did?" I asked. Believe it or not, I don't remember much of those nights.

"Yeah, you'd clasp yourself around our knees, remember?" he asked.

"Vaguely."

"You don't have to lie. It was pretty pathetic for a thirteen year old, but we're all family here."

"I don't remember that," I said.

"Hm. Maybe we should take her to some memory therapist or something," Tyler said, though I was pretty sure he was just kidding.

And speak of the devil, and he shall appear, my dad came in the room then. "Hey, guys, we're all here tonight!" he said excitedly. "Let's do something special for dinner, and Tyler, no skipping out this time."

"Hey, Jerry," my mom said, "can I talk to you in our room?"

They left the room—well, my mom dragged my dad out of the room, that is to say—and Tyler started laughing. "I guess she took that whole knee thing a little too seriously," he said.

"Were you lying?" I asked.

"No, I'm just saying. Dad can be a scary guy sometimes. Granted, he's your dad, so he shouldn't be that scary to you, but apparently he was. What did he do, get drunk and hit you or something?"

"Let's go see what they're talking about," I suggested, deciding for the moment not to answer.

When Matt and I were seven and five, respectively, we decided to make a map of the entire house. We wanted to figure out which rooms were above which, and what rooms a ghost could walk through a wall to get to. We got to our storage room and heard voices directly above us.

Now a little background about the storage room. When my parents were looking at this house, there was one room that was locked shut from the inside. The realtor had explained that the owners' teenage son lived in that room and refused to unlock it, so they had to leave that room to the imagination. Once they bought the house, they met with the people who previously owned it and discovered they never had a son, only three daughters who were five, three, and two. Upon entrance into the locked room, they discovered a dead body of a seventeen year old kid, his throat slit. They called the police who removed the body, but for some reason my parents never moved away. Still, the memories were unbearable, so they kept the room as a storage room, or as I like to call it, the hoarder room, because we don't actually need any of the stuff in it.

Anyway, when my brother and I had checked out this room, we heard our parents talking in their room. We discovered a hole in the ceiling, right in the corner. We figured it was because the house was so old and that there was just a hole our parents never bothered to fix. We had looked for the hole in their room, but had never found it. We figured it must have been covered by the carpet in their room.

And we discovered it was an amazing place to eavesdrop.

"What did you do to our poor daughter Natalia when she was thirteen?" my mother was asking.

"Nothing. She just didn't like the noises in the house, and since I was always sleeping, tired from work, she thought there was no one here."

Okay, I don't even remember it and I know that's not right.

"Look. When I married you, I knew you had a problem. I thought you could fix it. But I swear to God, if you've been drinking again, I will divorce you!" my mother yelled.

"I haven't. I promise."

I turned to Tyler with a shocked expression on my face. We never had alcohol in the house, and mom and dad had both assured me that it was because neither of them liked it. "Dad was a drunk?" I whispered in shock to my brother.


End file.
